Patty Marks: Sex, Romance, and Erotic Bestsellers

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By Calvin Reid
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May 24, 2013

The beginnings of Ellora’s Cave, the Akron, Ohio–based publisher of erotic romance fiction, have become something of a publishing business legend. Tina M. Engler, a single mom at the time, began writing the kind of romance novels she wanted to read—novels written with explicit descriptions of sexual encounters—and sent them off to various romance houses, hoping to find a publisher. When her books were all rejected—invariably because of the graphic sex scenes—she decided to publish them herself. Engler, who continues to write and publish fiction for Ellora’s Cave under the name Jaid Black, began selling her work as e-books in 2000, launched Ellora’s Cave in 2001, and had about $30,000 in sales that first year.

When Engler’s mother, Patty Marks, took over as CEO of Ellora’s Cave in 2003, the publisher was doing about $1.3 million in annual sales—a figure that Marks reported to PW during a lively phone interview. She also said that she expects sales to rise to nearly $15 million this year. EC publishes about 10 books a week and sells nearly 200,000 e-books per month. “We’re a regular publisher,” Marks said. “We have good editors and our own formatters who make sure the books work in all the e-book formats,” she added. The company has about 20 editors spread around the world and a staff of about 30 full-time workers in EC’s 13,000-square-foot office and warehouse facility in Akron.

Ellora’s Cave started out selling e-books with a PayPal account. Engler, Marks said, would stay up late e-mailing stories to her customers. By 2001, Engler had set up a Web site with a shopping cart and began publishing other writers. As revenues began to rise, Marks—she calls herself an “overbearing mom” (with a business degree)—was watching and helping out where she could. “I helped her set up spreadsheets and figure out royalty payments and other stuff. By 2003 she was making enough money to hire me,” she said.

A lively and decidedly un-CEO-like personality, Marks was funny, candid, and expansive while describing the business model behind Ellora’s Cave. She said EC does not offer advances and authors are paid a 40% royalty on the list price of titles sold through the company’s Web site, and a 45% royalty (on net receipts) on books sold through its retailer vendor accounts. The house sends out about 800 royalty checks every month. “Some of our writers are really prolific,” she said, adding, “some write a book a year, some haven’t written a book in a few years but their books are still selling.”

Ellora’s Cave has four imprints, including Romantica, EC’s main imprint (featuring the house’s “special blend” of love, happy endings, and “lots of hot sex,” according to its Web site), and Exotica, whose books each feature a heroine on a sexual adventure with “no strings attached” and no guarantee of a happy ending. There’s also EC for Men, with romance novels designed for male readers, and Blush, featuring more traditional romance titles. In addition, the publisher has about 22 “lines” that overlap all the imprints and cover just about every sexual impulse you can think of, from Spectrum (gay and lesbian) and Fusion (interracial) to Twilight (paranormal). “The formula is that every book needs a graphic element, a plot, and a romance. We offer nuanced fetishes, something for everyone,” Marks explained cheerfully. “We combine hardcore erotic language—no euphemisms—with romance, the soft touch and the love aspect,” Marks said, “and more people are reading and writing it for us.” And while the company markets the books at a wide variety of romance conventions, it also has its own convention, RomantiCon, held in Canton, Ohio, where fans gather for author appearances; book-cover photo shoots featuring the Cave Men, EC’s own crew of male models; and other events.

It’s not unusual for some EC authors, she said, to have a six-figure annual income, and some earn more. She pointed to Laurann Dohner, author of Moon, a New York Times bestseller and the latest book in the author’s New Species paranormal erotic romance series. Dohner, she said, will make $1 million this year. Indeed, Marks laughed and said Dohner has a “75-book contract.” She added, “We love her and she’s also making a lot of money.” Moon sold 20,000 copies on the first day it was released for Kindle. The house also has a few male authors, some of whom write under female pseudonyms—“because it sells better,” Marks explained.

Ellora’s Cave, the CEO said, is a digital-first publisher and e-books are its focus. Each book is released as an e-book for all platforms before the house goes to print based on the popularity of the title. All print titles are produced as POD editions, and Marks says the house is slowly getting around to offering select backlist titles in POD versions as well. E-book prices start at 99¢ and are based on length: $2.49 for a novella and up to $7.99 for a very long novel. Trade paperbacks start at $10.99 and go up to about $18.99. The house has only published one hardcover, Marks said, and it has no plans for more.

“We were heavy into print for a while, before Borders disappeared,” Marks said. She was quick to note that while Amazon’s business practices are controversial, the online retailer has helped Ellora’s Cave. “We’re happy with it,” Marks said, adding, “Amazon is like the IRS: you’ve got to do business with them.” She noted other retailers like Barnes & Noble and AllRomance.com also sell a lot of EC titles. The house also does a brisk and growing international business. “We sell books in countries where women aren’t supposed to see this kind of stuff,” she said, joking that, “we were global from the beginning because we didn’t know anything about territorial rights.”

While romance has always had a large audience, erotic romance has become a booming and profitable new genre. Marks credits part of the growth to the rise of digital publishing, but said, “part of the reason for the boom is us. Remember we’ve been doing well for years, and we have strong fans. Tina’s timing was great.”

The CEO explained that while men don’t mind walking into a convenience store to buy a copy of Playboy, women aren’t comfortable buying erotic publications in public places. “But with technology and e-book readers, no one knows what you’re reading,” she said. Marks also emphasized that EC offers female fans something that wasn’t previously in the marketplace: “Women want books with the erotic as well as the emotional component, so [erotic romance] opened up a whole new audience for us. We consider what we do a celebration of women’s sexuality.” —Calvin Reid

A version of this article appeared in the 05/27/2013 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Patty Marks: Sex, Romance, and Erotic Bestsellers

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